Adventures of a Pokemon Journalist
by Alyss Requiem
Summary: Amber Vraien is a journalist with a flare for adventure and unconventional methods. These are her stories. Story #1: A series of Arcanine attacks in the woods outside Santalune City seems a bit too out of the ordinary for Amber's liking.


**Hey guys, its been a while since my last post. I don't have any excuses, I haven't even had that much school work. I've just been trying to write 12 different stories at once, and I've been lazy. Well here is one of my 12 projects. This is going to be a series of oneshots I post every now and then as I write them. So here's the first one. **

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><p><strong>Arcanine in the Woods<strong>

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><p>Amber ducked, still able to feel the searing heat of the flamethrower she had narrowly avoided. She rolled to her left in an attempt to reach the bag she so foolishly dropped, but the guard pokémon leapt in front of her cutting her off. She scrambled to her feet in a desperate attempt to distance herself from the snarling, ferocious dog.<p>

The Arcanine watched her as she inched to the right, slowly circling it. She was nearly close enough to grab her bag when the Arcanine's fur bristled and its muscles tensed. Amber dove to the side, the sharp claws missing her by a hair. She hissed in pain as her shoulder hit the ground hard. She recovered quickly, and thrust her hand into her bag, searching desperately for a pokéball. She pulled a random one out, and tossed it into the air. The Arcanine growled menacingly at its new opponent which Luxray answered with a mighty roar. Smaller pokémon scampered away, but the Arcanine stood its ground, seemingly unfazed by it.

The Arcanine charged her pokémon, fire erupting from its fangs. Luxray's fur bristled and electricity arced across it, increasing in intensity until it seemed to be glowing. Arcanine's attack made contact, but it yelped and leapt back immediately. Luxray stood stoically, as if the attack hadn't affected it, but Amber could see the burn on Luxray's side paining it. She had to end this quickly.

"Use Superpower," she ordered.

Luxray charged at the recovering Arcanine, steam seeming to rose from its skin as it slammed hard into its opponent. The Arcanine was knocked back into a tree, falling unconscious on contract. Amber breathed a sigh of relief, and recalled her exhausted pokémon.

She carefully advanced through the bushes, curious about what the Arcanine was so intent on guarding. It obviously wasn't a wild pokémon, the way it moved while battling told her that much. She stopped and pulled out her notepad and pen, jotting down some notes on the oddities before continuing.

She stepped out of the foliage and into a clearing with a small, rundown cottage in the center. She looked around, sure that there would be more guard pokémon around. She realized she was correct when she saw the three Houndoom sleeping just inside the clearing to her left. She pulled a pokéball out of her bag, ready to release the pokémon inside if the need arose. She crept away from the Houndoom, making a sweeping arc to the cottage. The Houndoom noticed her however and charged at her. She threw herself out of the way, and released her pokémon.

The Alakazam used Protect the moment it exited the pokéball, shielding its trainer from the attacks of the other two Houndoom. The Houndoom hit the invisible wall, and bounced back, stunned from the unexpected event. Alakazam dropped the shield, and, sensing its trainer's intentions, used Hypnosis, putting the three pokémon to sleep.

Amber silently thanked her pokémon and continued forward, but kept Alakazam out in case she met any other guard pokémon. She reached the door only to find it was locked. She rolled her eyes, knowing she should have expected this. She mentally directed an order at Alakazam, not wanting to take any chance of being overheard. The psychic-type's eyes glowed as it used telekinesis to unlock the door.

As soon as she heard the lock click, she opened the door, making sure to keep it between her and whatever was inside the building. When nothing came out she peeked out from behind the door. The inside of the cottage looked like the outside, abandoned. Amber wasn't a fool, however, and knew someone wouldn't guard an abandoned cottage.

The first thing she noticed when she walked in was the lack of smell. The rotting wood should have left a distinct smell, but it was notably missing. She also noticed the window was open, but not broken, which was of considering the state of the rest of the house. There was also the brand new rug sitting in the middle of the floor which was a big giveaway. Amber sighed, wondering if whoever was using this place was a complete idiot, and lifted the rug. Underneath it was a trapdoor, just as she had expected. She toyed with the idea of turning back and calling the police for a few moments, but her curiosity overcame that, and she called Luxray back out.

Luxray stared intently at the door then looked up and nodded his head. It was safe to proceed. Amber recalled Luxray and lifted the heavy trapdoor with her Alakazam's help.

'Good work,' she thought at the psychic-type as she returned it to its pokéball. She climbed down the ladder, jumping off at the bottom, and landed on a cold concrete floor. A thud echoed through the chamber. Amber froze, and listened.

She berated her own stupidity as she heard footsteps quickly echoing down the corridor. She released Alakazam, not caring about the light the pokéball emitted. The man didn't get a chance to make a sound. Alakazam pulled the body over to where his trainer could examine it.

He was wearing a simple white shirt with a old Team Rocket jacket, but the "R" had been almost completely covered by a different design. Three Houndoom surrounded by a Rayquaza eating it's own tail covered the red letter. It was enough to tell her who she was dealing with. It was the symbol of an old crime syndicate, one of the largest in the world, but it declined around a decade ago. They were called Eternal Hell, with all the usual creative flare that the profession carried, and mostly dealt in illegal trafficking of drugs and pokémon.

She threw on the man's jacket and hat. It wasn't a great disguise, but it should be enough to fool anyone who glanced at her. She also swiped his gun, not wanting to be unarmed in this place.

The place was a series of long, barren concrete hallways, with offshoots heading off the main hallway every few meters. All in all, it was a terrible place to be if someone were to see her, with the only place to hide being the rafters above her head.

Amber followed the main hallway to a reinforced steel door. There was a keycard slider as well a code pad next to the door. She had swiped a keycard from the man, but she had no way of knowing the code. Her best bet was to wait for a member of the organization to come and open the door, though she had no idea when that would happen, and the last thing she wanted was to be here when the man she knocked out earlier awoke. Luckily, she heard footsteps coming down the hall at that moment.

'Thank Arceus,' she thought and pulled herself up into the rafters to avoid being seen. A woman wearing a nearly identical uniform to the one Amber wore approached the door, quickly entering a series of numbers and swiping her card. The lock clicked and he opened the door.

Amber climbed down silently from the rafters to stand behind the woman, and silently followed her through the door. Once they were both in the room, Amber closed the door, alerting the woman to her presence, but hit the woman with the butt of the gun, knocking her unconscious before she could react.

After clearing her of any possessions that could be useful, or harmful, Amber took a look around the room. Labeled boxes were stacked against the wall on both sides, ranging from Slowpoke Tails to Parasect Dust to Methamphetamine. On the other side of the room was another steel reinforced door, however this one didn't need a key.

She pressed her ear to the door and listened. Hearing nothing, she opened the door and walked in like she belonged there. When Amber opened the door a disgusting sight greeted her. Pokémon trapped in too small cages lay in their own filth, abused and listless, many with muzzles on them, muffling the cries and moans of pain. The scent was just as bad, almost enough to make her puke. The smell of sweat, urine, and feces permeated the air, mingling with the coppery smell of blood, only adding to the horrific sight.

A Parasect in a glass container was being constantly stimulated to produce its spores. In one cage was a pile of Cubone skulls, some still caked in blood, and next to it was a cage full of malnourished, feral Eevees, their normal docile personalities twisted by the terrible living conditions. Another held a Zangoose and a Seviper, both riddled with scars and lying exhausted on the ground. Both were caked in blood, some dry and some fresh, and Seviper had venom dripping from its fangs and tail. Another held a gold Altaria, another a cage of Dratini, another held a blue Houndour, and it just went on and on. She snapped a couple of pictures of the cages. Not even Team Rocket had been this bad.

After getting what she needed she exited the room quickly, unable to stand the sight and smell any longer. Amber shut the door, and turned around, only to find the barrel of a gun at her forehead.

"Well, well. Look what we've got 'ere," the man said with a thick accent she couldn't place, "a li'l rat caught in the pantry,"

"Can't you people come up with something more clever than the usual 'rat' comparison," Amber sighed, "I mean really, do you know how many times I've been-"

She slammed her heel into the man's foot at the same time she twisted his hand, forcing him to drop the gun, and slammed his head into the wall. She kicked the gun away and flipped the man over her shoulder. He hit the floor hard and struggled to get up with Amber's foot planted firmly on his back.

"-called a rat?" She finished smugly.

The man turned his head as much as he could to face the journalist, "You bi-"

Amber cut him off by pointing a gun at his head, immediately shutting him up.

"You want to finish that sentence," Amber said coldly, any fear and lightheartedness previously present gone.

"Ya don't 'ave the guts t' shoot me," the man challenged, "All ya investigators are all alike, all bark and no-" Amber shot him, cutting off his sentence. He tried to scream as pain flared in his shoulder, but even that was cut off when Amber stepped on his throat.

"All bark and no what?," She asked in a sickeningly sweet tone, a smile plastered on her face. She dropped the smile and looked him in the eye coldly, "I'm assuming these rooms are soundproofed so no one'll be coming to help you no matter what I do to you, so it will be in your best interest answer my question. Who is your leader?" she lifted her foot slightly from his neck, but he made no move to speak, choosing instead to spit at her.

She kicked him hard in the face, and slammed her foot back into his neck, stifling his cry of pain, "Listen to me carefully," She twisted the foot she had planted on his neck, "I'm about to call the police, they will be here in a few minutes. You can either be dead or alive when they get here, understand?" He nodded his head frantically, "Good, now then. Who. Is. Your. Leader?" She once again removed her foot from his throat.

He coughed up some blood before fearfully answering, his voice thick from the injuries"I-I only know 'er as Madame Valentine, though most of us 're partial to callin' 'er La Dame du Fouet cause of 'er temper," He noticed Amber's disbelieving expression and began speaking rapidly, "I swear 'm tellin' the truth. Ya gotta believe me. No one 'as seen 'er face 'cept fer the higher ups an' those who've gotten on 'er bad side, but they never come back," he coughed and spat out more blood.

Amber let the gun drop to her side, "Fine then," she said, "I'll let you live, but," She crouched down to look him in the eyes and pressed the gun to his forehead, "If you call for help or raise any sort of alarm, I will put a bullet where your brain should be. Understand?" He nodded frantically.

Amber removed the gun and began to walk away when the man behind her, stupidly thinking himself safe, decided to speak, "Ya won't stop us. Eternal Hell won't be stopped by a prissy investigator with a sharp tongue,"

Amber stopped walking. He smirked, thinking he hadwon, and continued talking, "Yeah that's right. Ya're nothin' but a prissy li'l-" Amber spun around and slammed her foot into his temple, hard, knocking him out instantly.

"I'm a journalist, not an investigator," she said to the unconscious man before spinning around and exiting the room, careful to step over the woman's limp form.

She ran down the hall, having gotten everything she needed, paying no heed to the amount of noise she was making. She passed the various offshoot hallways without a second glace, as they likely led to rooms similar to the one she had just found. She passed the unconscious man's body and climbed back up the ladder leaving behind the borrowed hat and jacket, as they had turned out to be useless.

Once she had reached the surface, she breathed deeply, thankfully gulping down the fresh, clean air. Outside the rundown hut, the Houndoom were still asleep, not surprising since she had only been down there for a half hour.

She released her Rapidash from its pokéball, and expertly leapt onto its back, "Come on, let's get back to Lumiose,"

Her pokémon neighed and took off out of the woods at a gallop. She took out her notepad, and finished off her notes, beginning to write her article. She knew she still needed to call the police, and she would, those pokemon didn't deserve to suffer anymore than they already had, but it could wait until she got a headstart on the other reporters.

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><p><strong>That ending was a pain to write, but that doesn't matter. Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed it. Please leave a review and tell me what you think or how I can improve. Also if you're a Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood fan please check out my other two stories. Have fun and stay amazing.<strong>


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